THE NEW YORKER, AUGUST 3, 2015
35
was half black and half white. Sue re-
alized that he had expected the baby
to be striped, like a zebra.
Some months later, they received a
new issue of Los Niños and saw that
the six teen-agers they had noticed be-
fore were still there, only there were
fewer of them---the two oldest had
aged out of the system. Now the six
kids stood almost no chance of stay-
ing together in the same family, and
the older ones might never have par-
ents at all. Who else was going to adopt
six teen-agers? They decided to try for
them.The social workers said no. Hec-
tor and Sue were too young---barely
ten years older than the oldest of the
children---and too white. It seemed
like a bad idea to bring six black kids
to Vermont, and into a family that al-
ready had ten children. But Sue said
to the social workers: Ours might not
be the ideal family for these kids, but
isn't it better than nothing?
The teen-agers were from Texas.
Their mother was illiterate; she mar-
ried their father when she was sixteen
and had six kids in seven years: JD,
Fisher, Lilly, Renée, Tricia, and David.
One night when David was a baby, he
had such a high fever that their mother
took him to the hospital, and when he
came back he was deaf and couldn't
talk. Their father drank a lot and was
in jail a lot. He believed that his wife
cheated on him while he was in jail, so
when he got out he beat her.
He started molesting Renée when
she was five. He didn't touch her sis-
ters, only Renée. He told her that he
was teaching her how to be a woman.
It happened in a little room at the end
of the house.There was flowered wall-
paper on the walls, and there was a
chair in the corner.The door was white.
Renée said her mother knew what
was happening, she would clean her
up in the bathroom afterward, but she
spanked her and told Renée it was her
own fault.
Their father messed around with
other women, too, and one day he
messed around with another man's
woman and the man shot him dead.
After that, their mother left. JD was
twelve, and decided to avenge his fa-
ther's death and kill the man who had
killed him. He knew who the man was,
and the man was going to get out of
prison after a few months. He would
kill him then. But the first thing was
to find food. JD and Fisher left to go
out and hustle. While they were gone,
Lilly stole and begged food and made
sure the younger kids kept going to
school. No one was paying the elec-
tricity bill, so the house was dark.
They had an idea where their mother
was, because people in the neighbor-
hood had seen her around. JD knew
that she got a check at the end of the
month; when that time came, he told
everyone to get in a taxi. They found
her, but she wasn't happy to see them
and asked what they were doing there.
JD told her they were hungry. She took
them to a grocery store and bought
them some food. She stayed for a cou-
ple of weeks and then she left again.
After a few months, somebody re-
ported them to the state, and the six
of them were split up. David was sent
to Santa Fe to a school for the deaf.
Renée was abused in a foster home
and said she wanted to kill herself, so
she was put in a mental hospital in
Amarillo.Tricia's foster parents locked
her in a closet. Sometimes when Tri-
cia was riding on the school bus she
would look out the window and see
her mother on the street. She would
scream to her, "Mama!" and her mother
would say, "Hi, Patricia," and keep on
walking.
Sue kept badgering the social work-
ers. At first, she and Hector were per-
mitted to adopt only the youngest of
the six, David, who was thirteen. When
they went to pick him up, they per-
suaded the social workers to let them
take two more as well---Renée, who
was sixteen, and Tricia, who was fifteen.
RENÉE: When I first met Hector
I'm, like, you got an Afro like a black
man! Tricia goes, "Renée, he black, I
think he's black and white." I said, "Tri-
cia, I don't think he's black and white,
I think he's all Caucasian." And she
goes, "No, he had to have some mix,
you see his 'fro?"
TRICIA: It was freezing. It was De-
cember, and they were driving us from
the airport, and I remember my dad
driving up to this old abandoned house,
and I'm sitting there, Oh, my God,
these white people are going to use us
for slaves, I'm so scared! I started cry-
ing in the back. And Hector was, like,
Oh, stop crying, I'm just joking, this is
where we live, over here.
At first, it felt to Tricia like a group
home. She liked having all the little
kids around---she liked doing the girls'
hair and playing with Barbies---but
they didn't feel like brothers and sis-
ters yet. The thought of calling Hec-
tor and Sue her parents was strange.
But the kids were always doing
something, sledding or playing sports
or running around in the grass outside
the house, and getting their clothes and
shoes and toys mixed up, and if you
were in a fight with one person there
were eleven others to play with, and,
for the most part, it worked, they were
happy. The following winter, Sue and
Hector invited the three older kids---
JD, who was nineteen, Fisher, who was
eighteen, and Lilly, who was seven-
teen---out to visit.
JD: I was curious about what they
were all about.This is my brothers and
sisters these people were going to have.
His name is Hector so I'm thinking
someone Hispanic, and all of a sudden
I meet this light-skinned white dude,
I'm thinking, What's that about. And
also wondering, Is this really gonna
stay? I was wondering if they bit o
more than they could chew.
At the end of that visit, despite the
fact that JD was already an adult, and
Fisher and Lilly were in their senior
year of high school, they decided to
leave New Mexico to join the family
in Vermont.
SUEANN: They made me give up my
room. I was the oldest girl and I had
my own room finally, once in my life.
My dad was, like, Don't worry, some
day you'll get your own room again.
And I did, eventually.
FLORY: But I loved them.
SUEANN: We loved them.
FLORY: They used to braid our hair.
SUEANN: They used to do our hair
and play music and dance, they were
so much fun.
LILLY: I felt like they were my broth-
ers and sisters. I mean, they were kids
I didn't know, but they were in the same
boat as me and they needed somebody
to love, too. They needed a big sister.
I felt I had to protect them.
All the teen-agers were nervous
about being black in Vermont, but
Fisher and Lilly were wildly popular